The winter hotlist 2011

The return of Friends' Matt LeBlanc to the screen after five years, with two British comedy favourites, kicks off our guide to the coming season. Plus, a definitive pick of the must-catch books, music, style, and restaurants

EPISODES

Ever since Curb Your Enthusiasm, comic actors from Ricky Gervais to Simon Amstell have been lining up to play themselves on TV. But Episodes, the new BBC comedy drama beginning this week, promises to break the mould. First, the man playing himself is Matt LeBlanc, making his first return to the screen in five years. And secondly, the series is written by Friends creator David Crane – the man who made LeBlanc a household name.

Unlike Joey, LeBlanc's last project, this is no spin-off star vehicle; it's a scathing satire on Hollywood, following British husband-and-wife comedy writers (Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig) as their hit TV show is remade – and ruined – in America, with LeBlanc parachuted, against their will, into the lead role. For the real-life LeBlanc, it's a chance to subvert his celebrity – and his ubiquitous association with his most famous role. But mostly, it's a dazzling display of comic chemistry and quickfire banter between its three leads – and as OM discovers when we meet them in London, they don't even need a script…

Episodes is set in Hollywood, but it was mostly shot in London. How did that work?TG They're able to do some wonderful stuff with green screen. There are scenes in Matt's house in Malibu which we actually shot overlooking a power station in Mill Hill. MLeB Just as pretty. Malibu's overrated. SM Some nights we were sitting in a convertible in the rain trying to pretend it's 80F when it was about 8C, being told by the director, "Don't breathe out because we can see your breath." Try to do a three-minute scene without breathing…MLeB They took the rain off the car on the computer.SM What they can do now is incredible. My part will be played by David Schwimmer when it comes out.

How did you find LA when you did go there?SM It's nice to go over there and…TG Be a nobody.SM Yes, and to feel you don't know what's going on. That's what this show is all about.TG I'm a Hollywood ingenue, but Steve's made a pilot there before. SM Nothing that's actually been seen.MLeB So you've failed there.SM Twice. I'm quite a success at failing there.TG People are on shows that get cancelled all the time in LA. That's a good career! If you get sacked from five shows, you're working. MLeB There's a lot of actors go from pilot to pilot and no one has any idea who they are. There are people who live in really beautiful homes that have never been on TV. You have the anonymity, and the money. I want to get on a show that tanks!TG This might be it for you, babe.MLeB No, my shows all get picked up [laughs]. No thanks to me, I'm sure. It's just the way the hat, um, the shoe, what is it? The shoe dropped? What's that saying you have here?TG The shoe dropped? Is this your understanding of English in this country? SM Oh, you mean how the buttered scone hit the butler. Is that the one?

So did you experience the Hollywood lifestyle?SM Matt shepherded me around in his Ferrari for a couple of awe-inspiring hours.MLeB We had a giant barbecue and pool party at David and Jeffrey's [Klarik] house with Tamsin's kids and my daughter. Stephen didn't bring his family 'cos I guess he doesn't really care about them.SM Yeah, that day was living the dream. They actually live next to Oprah.

Episodes hangs on the vagaries of the casting process: what were your own auditions like? MLeB I remember when Stephen had his last reading with the producers, he was sitting there ready to go in to the room and it was quite an intimidating moment.SM Matt took me to one side and said can I give you a piece of advice? I thought, Matt LeBlanc is going to help me through this read… He said, [whispers] "Don't suck". Then walked off.MLeB The look on your face. That set the pace for the shoot, didn't it? I don't take any of it too seriously. Stephen tends to get a little more upset about things than me.SM You don't need to take it too seriously any more! I just want to feed my family, is that too much to ask?TG And you're going, "I got a new car!"MLeB I'm sick of caviar…TG And, of course, Stephen is a serious Shakespearean actor. He's properly trained. MLeB See what I like to do is take any attention off me by playing practical jokes. Which he falls for every time.TG In one scene we're all reading scripts, and Steve opened up his script, on camera, and there was a slice of salami in it which Matt had helpfully put in there. So to get Matt back, he drew a rude picture in the script. [Pause.] However, Steve is a really shit artist. He drew a picture of a penis, but it was unrecognisable.MLeB And it was [holds fingers up an inch apart] this big! I missed it!SM It was the most pathetic practical joke ever played in the history of filmmaking.MLeB It was such a bad drawing of a penis that you wondered, does he actually have one for reference?

What was it that drew you to the series, Matt?MLeB It was the writers. I'd just taken five years off, spending time with my daughter and goofing around… Then David and Jeffrey called me and said what are you doing, and I said, "Spending some of that money, thanks again." With my last experience of TV [the Friends spin-off Joey], I felt the biggest problem was in the writing. If I was going to trust myself to a writer again, I'd go with the guy that paid for the house I'm sitting in… My only reservation was: what does that mean, play myself? They said, well it's not a documentary, it's a version of you that suits the story and by calling it you it gives us this great creative licence. And everything they did they checked with me first to make sure I was comfortable with it which was a luxury I didn't anticipate. It was a built-in power trip.

And how was going back to work for the first time in five years?MLeB My first day I had this big monologue in a car with Stephen. The strangest thing was that when there was a joke, nobody laughed. I was so used to working in front of an audience, and in the back of my head there was this voice going, "Fuck, I thought you nailed that. You suck! Five years, you lost it. Like Chevy Chase."TG And there were times when Steve and I would hear David and Jeffrey sitting at the monitor laughing, and we, conversely, would be going, "Who is making that noise? How dare they! We're doing our best work here…"

How do you feel about forever being associated with the character of Joey?MLeB I never look at it as a bad thing. If someone believes a performance you've done and really thinks you're that person, that's kind of a compliment. And being known as Joey always gives me an advantage going into any situation, because their guard is down, they think I'm stupid. They speak nice and slow to me.SM I can relate. Because of Guy Secretan [in Green Wing], people think I'm…TG … a bit of a bastard? What the writers are playing with in Episodes is: who do you know Matt to be? It makes a really delicate comment on the nature of celebrity. That we're chasing after our own farts. MLeB [sniffing the air] Did you just say chasing after your own farts? Did that actually come out of your mouth?

There's a very convincing bromance between Stephen and Matt's characters – does it exist in real life, too?TG [laughs wildly] Oh, they absolutely adore each other. MLeB I love that man. Look at him! How could you not? The moppy hair…SM It was great to be working in something with one of the world's great comedy actors. And Matt was in it as well.

And, of course, Tamsin and Stephen already have an on-screen chemistry…SM When you're playing husband and wife it can be hard to create that feeling that you've known each other a long time. Whereas we could practically be married.TG We sort of are. My husband goes to the football with Stephen. They're both Tottenham season-ticket holders.

Finally, did you discover any annoying habits about each other?MLeB When I memorise the dialogue I memorise everyone's lines, so as Tamsin's talking I'm going [moves lips silently]. And I have no idea I'm doing it. Ever. TG Sometimes I'd talk quicker to see if you could keep up.MLeB Jennifer Aniston used to hate it. TG [gasps] Did she? She's so uptight. SM You can't do theatre if you mouth the words.TG You'd never do theatre, would you? You're too afraid.MLeB I'm afraid I'd be bored by the second week. I'd be like, really, the same fucking thing again?TG Well, you managed Friends for 10 years.

THE PLUMEN LIGHTBULB

"It's strange that the bulb, an object so synonymous with ideas, is almost entirely absent of imagination," says Nicolas Roope, the 38-year-old creative director and co-founder of London-based design brand Hulger. Roope's personal lightbulb moment three years ago resulted in our favourite project launch of 2010: the Plumen. Described as "the world's first designer energy-saving lightbulb", the Plumen uses 80% less power than traditional incandescent bulbs and lasts up to eight times longer. But, most important, it looks fantastic, all oversized and scrawling the air with light. It launched at the London Design Festival in September and its first run of 5,000 sold out just before Christmas."People seem to like it, and that sounds basic but it's really important. It creates a natural viral effect," says Roope. He cites the example of the battery-powered Tesla sportscar, which is virtuous without remotely looking like it should be. "You are trying to reverse the psychology of being environmentally conscious." At the end of this month the Plumen will be available in bayonet as well as screw cap, and by April it will have been adapted for use in the US, Japan and South America. Roope is aware that imitators are inevitable, but does not fear the competition. "It erodes our share, but it makes us part of a category rather than a one-off." Success will also drive the price down. "Ultimately, I see us selling in supermarkets, not just design stores."

THE VACCINES

The past couple of years have not been kind to young guitar bands: with the charts dominated by homegrown pop and R&B, the best that four lads with Fenders have been able to hope for lately is soundtracking a particularly amusing bit of The Inbetweeners. Hopes are high, then, for young Londoners the Vaccines, as the clamour around their frills-free rock'n'roll is already intense enough to secure them a three song-slot on Later… with Jools Holland and third place in this year's Brits Critics' Choice award after just one single, "Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra)". The clue is in the title: sharp, shouty tunes are the key to their appeal, not adventurous haircuts and fashionable strides. They might just stay the course.

The Vaccines' new single "Post Break Up Sex" is out on 31 January. The band tours the UK from 29 January

ARKADY NOVIKOV

The Russians are coming. OK, some of them have been here for quite a while, either owning high-end steakhouses and Japanese joints or paying the eye-watering bills run up in them. But the arrival in the capital next year of Arkady Novikov, the star restaurateur of Moscow, with the Novikov Restaurant Group, secures the deal. He has slapped a deposit on 19,000sqft of Mayfair, and will open a three-tiered extravaganza in the spring on Berkeley Street. So can we expect gastronomic joys? Well, no, probably not. His 50 or so restaurants in Moscow tend to put style far ahead of content, though in a city starved of good places to eat they are more than adequate. Here expect to see a lot of glitz, shiny furnishings, endlessly papped photos of slebs going into the place and reasonably good sushi. The Russians just lurve their sushi.

Novikov Berkeley, 50 Berkeley Street, London W1

JACK THORNE

Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss and Howard Overman have all reminded us this year that great screenwriting doesn't have to be niche or worthy. So move over, Stephen Poliakoff, and welcome, Jack Thorne, a former Skins writer who last autumn shared credits with Shane Meadows on This Is England '86. The 32-year-old's first BBC series The Fades – an apocalyptic supernatural thriller about a geeky guy whose ability to see the dead holds the key to saving the world – is already creating industry buzz and will air later in the year; Thorne has also been commissioned to adapt Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down for the big screen. But first comes climate-change play Greenland, this month's groundbreaking National Theatre collaboration with Matt Charman, Moira Buffini and Penelope Skinner, and a national tour of his Edinburgh award-winning play Bunny.

MULBERRY TILLIE

Super-luxe handbags, eh? Just when you think you couldn't want a particular style any more, just when you think you'll combust with longing for it, another one comes along and you start the process all over again. Last year it was the satchel-inspired Mulberry Alexa that blew our minds/bank balances/hopes of being satisfied by a simple shopper. In 2011 it'll be the Mulberry Tillie, an exquisite and utilitarian sort of a piece that'll hit stores on 14 January. Prepare to want. Hard.

VIVE LES FRANÇAISES

With their tousled hair, natural beauty, elegance and touch of oh là là, French girls will be replacing LA starlets and English roses as the muses of film and fashion this spring. Actress Cécile de France shines in Clint Eastwood's film Hereafter alongside Matt Damon later this month. Actress and singer Josephine de la Baume not only sauces up the new Agent Provocateur campaign but also appears in the much anticipated film adaptation of One Day later this year. Model and Gainsbourg actress Laetitia Casta appears in the new Roberto Cavalli campaign. Everyone loves the designs of Laetitia Crahay, head of accessories and jewellery for Chanel, and everyone loves the style of Valentine Fillol Cordier, muse to Matthew Williamson and stylist for French designer Charles Anastase. If you're not French, at least pretend to have a little je ne sais quoi…

BEN YOUNGS

Since the decline of Jonny Wilkinson, English rugby hasn't really had a "darling" – a player that makes the team not just better but somehow more appealing, too. Step forward, Ben Youngs – the genial scrum-half who proved the fulcrum of a rejuvenated England in the autumn internationals and who promises to bring some serious razzle dazzle to next month's Six Nations Championship. He's 21, and his rise has been steep and sudden – it's only a year since he broke into the Leicester first team – but he's already proved something of a nemesis for Australia after his debut try helped England beat them in Sydney, and his daring play orchestrated the return thrashing at Twickenham in November. With seven caps to his name, Ben has outdone his Test-playing father, Nick – but you sense that's just the beginning.

MR PORTER

The biggest news in menswear for 2011 is the February launch of net-a-porter.com's menswear site, mrporter.com. Our fingers are itching to log on and fill our wardrobes with what promises to be a mix of global must-haves with local specialists and niche brands. At the time of going to press, details are being kept close to Mr Porter's no doubt fashionably dressed chest, but expect to see labels such as Lanvin, MR by Roland Mouret, YSL and, we very much hope, J Crew. There's one thing we are sure of: with ex-Esquire editor Jeremy Langmead at the helm, this will be a slick and well-heeled operation.

RIO DE JANEIRO

Last year, under the headline "Brazil takes off", the cover of The Economist featured a mock-up of Rio's iconic Christ the Redeemer statue blasting off like a rocket from its perch on Corcovado Mountain. The imagery isn't stretching the truth too far: Brazil, and Rio in particular, is flying. Thanks to unprecedented economic growth (and the discovery of an offshore oil field the size of the Amazon), the city is buzzing as never before. Throw in the feelgood factor stemming from the immense pride that this sports-mad city takes in the prospect of hosting the World Cup and the Olympics, in 2014 and 2016, and there's never been a better time to head to the "Marvellous City". Hip bars and restaurants are popping up every week, and the new-felt confidence can even be seen in the city's favelas. Many of these former gang-controlled areas are now relatively safe for tourists to visit. The most visible sign of this welcome change is in the Santa Marta favela in central Rio, which is being painted a kaleidoscope of brilliant colours by two Dutch artists and a team of 25 residents, who are transforming it into a living work of art. It's a bright, Technicolor statement of hope in Brazil's future.

MARC JACOBS

To mark the first decade of Marc Jacobs's phenomenally successful diffusion line – Marc by Marc – the designer will re-release the label's greatest hits in a special anniversary collection. Marc by Marc was one of the first diffusion lines truly aimed at the pockets and tastes of young people. Seven of the most iconic womenswear prints will be back on scarves and dresses, and there'll be military-inspired jackets for men and women. Most items retail for under £350, and they're on sale from 15 March. Sounds like a perfect 10 to us.

ST PANCRAS HOTEL

The most eagerly awaited hotel opening in 2011 is undoubtedly the Midland Grand Hotel, which will provide the final piece of the jigsaw in the stunning St Pancras station redevelopment. Sir George Gilbert Scott's Grade I-listed Gothic Revival masterpiece – which survived demolition in the 1960s thanks to the efforts of John Betjeman and the Victorian Society – will open its doors in May, rechristened the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel. It has been restored to glory at a cost of more than £150m by architect Geoff Mann, who worked with English Heritage to preserve as many of the original features – gold-leaf ceilings, hand-stencilled wall designs and the grand staircase – from when it first opened in 1876.

ILLAMASQUA

Though it only launched in 2008, cult beauty brand Illamasqua, with its 1920s-inspired aesthetic and professional-quality make-up, has doubled its sales every year since, and in 2011 is expected to sell three products a minute. With punk-rock singer David Vanian of the Damned as creative director, the brand's gothic influences are evident in its false lashes and pure-pigment powder. The dedication to the alternative scene even stretches to their charity work – Illamasqua works with the Sophie Lancaster Foundation (set up in memory of the Lancashire girl who was beaten to death for her goth style in 2007).

MISERY MEMOIRS

This year, women writers are lining up to demonstrate that the misery memoir is alive and well. In January, US-residing British journalist Emma Forrest – former beau of Colin Farrell – brings out Your Voice in My Head, a memoir of her struggle with depression. In the same month, Throwing Muses singer Kristin Hersh publishes Paradoxical Undressing, the story of her descent into, and recovery from, schizophrenia. In April comes Margaux Fragoso's Tiger, Tiger, chronicling her long relationship with a man four decades older than her, beginning when she was seven.

RATTIGAN REVIVAL

After the National Theatre's production of After the Dance last year, the stage is literally set for Terence Rattigan, the influential British playwright of the 1970s, to dominate this season. His centenary year kicks off with Less Than Kind at London's Jermyn Street Theatre (18 January) and Maxine Peake in The Deep Blue Sea at the West Yorkshire Playhouse (18 February); more Rattigan classics are opening in Northampton and Chichester, not to mention a season of his films at the BFI. But the hottest ticket should be Cause Célèbre at the Old Vic: Thea Sharrock, whose After the Dance drew sensational performances from Benedict Cumberbatch and Nancy Carroll, now has Anne-Marie Duff to work with.

OTTOLENGHI'S NOPI

Yotam Ottolenghi's cafés are London institutions – famous for the wonderful food and laidback atmosphere. But this year he is branching out with a more formal approach to dining when he opens his first grown-up restaurant, Nopi (North of Piccadilly), in mid-February. The food will have similar Mediterranean and Middle Eastern influences, but he promises the dishes will be more inventive. "Ottolenghi's is a well-loved formula that has been going for eight years," says Yotam. "We're looking for a new creative challenge, with the focus being on an innovative restaurant concept rather than take-away."

PEUGEOT'S MU

Like Boris's Barclay bikes which were inspired by Paris's Vélib hire scheme, 2011 will see another French "mobility solution" rolling out on these shores. This time it's not just bikes that are involved: it's cars, vans, scooters and any driving accessory you can name, from roof boxes to children's car seats. It's called Mu and the idea is that points (which cost 20p each) can be bought by anyone and exchanged for vehicle time. It's all about flexibility for the carless urbanite. It's affordable – a bike will cost you £5 a day, a scooter £39 and a hatchback £56 – and there are no overheads. Best of all, the trendsetting electric iOn city car is one of the vehicles you can Mu. It's car hire, but not as you know it.

ANDROGYNY

Fashion is fascinated by sexual ambiguity at the moment. While Italian transsexual model Lea T stars in the latest Givenchy ad campaign and has appeared in Vanity Fair and Vogue magazines, the two hottest names in fashion are the beautifully androgynous Andrej Pejic and Freja Beha Erichsen. Australian Pejic was the talk of the last Men's Fashion Week and will appear in the latest Jean Paul Gaultier ad campaign. In the new Pirelli calendar – shot by Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld – Erichsen stars as Greek god Apollo, complete with codpiece.

CHARLOTTE OLYMPIA

Designer Charlotte Dellal believes that shoes are the way to a woman's heart. Once you've seen her exquisite leopard-print wedges, ivy-covered high heels and this season's Carmen Miranda banana shoes, you'll understand how she's reached that conclusion. Her imaginative yet unfathomably comfortable designs do inspire love. "It's always detail that catches my eye," she says, "so I naturally turned to accessory design. I love hats, gloves and shoes, especially from the 40s and 50s, when accessories were more colourful and humorous and outfits were more sober." Dellal graduated from the London College of Fashion in 2004 and set up Charlotte Olympia in 2006, though her family background also helped provide her with a sturdy grounding in business and fashion. Her Brazilian mother Andrea was a model and muse for Valentino in the 1970s, and her English father, Guy, is a property developer. Brother Alex runs an art gallery and sister Alice is a model. "Design is my passion," says Dellal, "but Charlotte Olympia is a business, not a hobby. It's super-important to be involved in the marketing, making the business grow. I'm interested in building a brand." Her celebrity fans have certainly helped to raise her profile: Kate Moss, Sarah Jessica Parker and Emma Watson have all been snapped wearing their Charlotte Olympias, and Dellal is also receiving praise from the fashion industry. She won an emerging-talent award in the US last month, and she's shortlisted for the prestigious British Fashion Council/Vogue Fashion Fund award alongside Erdem and Christopher Kane. "I found that incredible," she says. "I'm so lucky to be nominated alongside those names and to be recognised at that level." Now, though, she's focused on her new work for this spring's London and New York Fashion Week and on evolving her bag and hosiery lines. "I always have a pin-up for a collection and for autumn/winter 2011 it's Agatha Christie. I'm an avid fan – I watch all the Poirots and I've read all the books. So I'll just see what Agatha inspired in me…"

ALAN HOLLINGHURST

More than six years have elapsed since Alan Hollinghurst's exquisite, Booker Prize-winning The Line of Beauty was published. Though not quite Franzenesque in scale, the wait has added to the sense of expectation surrounding Hollinghurst's follow-up. What would the next move be for a writer who had so eloquently captured the mood of a decade – the 1980s – and so precisely delineated the hypocrisies of English upper middle-class life? Would he narrow his focus and return to the more modest canvases of his earlier novels? Or would he go the other way? Hollinghurst's fans will be delighted to know that the answer isn't far off. Picador, his publisher, recently announced that his new book, The Stranger's Child, is to be published in July. According to Paul Baggaley, Picador's publisher, the novel – Hollinghurst's fifth – is "epic in all senses": more than 500 pages long, consisting of five parts, and spanning a whole century in telling the story of two families and two houses, and the secrets they conceal. It is, says Baggaley, Hollinghurst's "biggest and most ambitious work yet". The starting point is a weekend in 1913. An aristocratic Cambridge undergraduate with poetic leanings, Cecil Valance (a character not unlike Rupert Brooke), is visiting his slightly less grand friend George Sawle. During the course of the weekend, Valance writes a poem about Sawle's family home, Two Meadows, which will later become famous, a touchstone for a lost England (much like Brooke's poem The Old Vicarage, Grantchester). Though predictable tragedy soon tears the friendship apart, the events of the weekend ensure that the lives of their families are intertwined over the coming decades. The remainder of the book is, says Baggaley, "all about discovering what went on that weekend, what had been hidden and how it is revealed – by literary executors, biographers, and other members of the two families". The century-long perspective allows Hollinghurst to chart the way reputation and fashions change over time, not just in literature but in architecture, clothing and morality. Unsurprisingly, homosexuality is an important element, but, Baggaley says, the exploration of changing sexual mores is lightly done and only one of The Stranger's Child's many preoccupations. As ever with Hollinghurst, there are some "superb set pieces: grand dinners, social scenes where you get that wonderful arc of his writing and the brilliant delineation of English society". By taking the Brideshead preoccupations of The Line of Beauty and presenting them on a still bigger stage, the novel will, Baggaley says, appeal to a potentially even broader audience. "I don't think anyone who loves Alan's writing will be disappointed, but I also think this will find many more readers who haven't been drawn to his previous work."